Mar | 03 | Snake Handling

Key Word:- TRUST

Title:- Snake Handling

Mark 16:18 they will take up serpents;


Always controversial and in many areas illegal, as of yet it shows no signs of disappearing from its traditional home in Appalachia, the mountainous regions of the South-Eastern United States, stretching from Georgia to Pennsylvania. Present practitioners believe that handling serpents is their way of simply following the Gospel to the letter. They believe other people ‘won't do this because their churches don't believe, or it's just something they're scared of, and that in the end, people just come to this portion of the Bible and want to ignore it or delete it because it's a deadly thing.’ Ya, you betcha!

Ralph Hood, a professor of social psychology and the psychology of religion at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, reports that at the beginning of the millenium “There are over 100 documented deaths from serpent bites. In every tradition, people are bitten and maimed by them. They risk their lives all the time by handling them. If you go to any serpent-handling church, you'll see people with atrophied hands, and missing fingers.” Well, like I said, you had better believe it is a deadly thing!

I am a literalist that does not go looking for serpents to prove his faith, or his belief in God, or even to prove to others that I have the Holy Spirit. It is evident however, that serpents do come looking for me! From the Garden of Eden to the shipwreck of Paul, serpents have tried to kill and maim the Christian church. So, allow a literalist a little, but nonetheless evident allegory here, will you? The devil is the great serpent of old, from the beginning, striking at the heels and hands of nations, churches, and individuals, trying to atrophy where we go and what we do; trying to poison Gospel feet and maim lifted up, holy hands of praise. Whenever we are engaged in the proclomation of the Gospel, be assured friends, that we too shall handle serpents and we shall not die if bitten by them. Oh and remember, it’s amazing how many broods of vipers there are that can be lurking in local churches. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Listen: - But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. Acts 28:5

Pray: Help us O Lord, to shake him into Your prepared flames! Yes Devil! In the name of Jesus, we shake you from our bodies into the everlasting flames. In Jesus mighty name, amen!